Cheapest way to rent/lease a car for 6 weeks. | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

Mon 27 Apr 2015 14:13

Cheapest way to rent/lease a car for 6 weeks. - johnnyrev

At the end of May my wife is doing a 6 week placement as part of her college course. It's in an awkward part of town for bus and train, so a car would be very helpful. We can't afford to buy another car until she gets a job after finishing college next year, so we are looking at the cheapest way to rent or lease a car for 6 weeks.

Does anyone have any bright ideas for the cheapest way to do this? Lots of rental companies won't rent over 30 days, and/or are very expensive. The cheapest so far is £700+ for a short term lease.

It's slightly annoying as someone gave us a car last year, but at the time we couldn't afford the insurance as my had only recently passed her test.

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Mon 27 Apr 2015 14:27

Cheapest way to rent/lease a car for 6 weeks. - gordonbennet

ebay/gumtree (with reservations) or the local ads in the supermarket, or as we find round here local facebook selling groups are brilliant for things like this having no fees.

I'd buy a cheap banger with a decent MOT for anything from £200 to £400 tops, it'll sell just as easily when you've done with it.

Insurance wise, it might be sensible for you to drive the banger for the duration, you'll probably get a decent deal off your current insurer and when the time is right cancel the policy...though i'd be up front with them and check figures, we got a second policy from Saga when we had a third car for a couple of months, they were quite happy about this and we got a proper 10 months or so of costs refunded with no penalty and no fees, very helpful they were.

If you see a likely car you could enter the details on one of the insurance comparison sites for a basic figure to work with, obviously you'll have to tax it for the peroid of your ownership but a pre 2001 car less than 1500cc is cheap to tax anyway whatever its CO2 figures.

You might find an old banger has merits and decide to keep it, you can leave the thing anywhere without worrying about damage tree sap bird lime etc etc, ideal shopping trolley.

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Mon 27 Apr 2015 14:50

Cheapest way to rent/lease a car for 6 weeks. - catsdad

A short-term buy might well work but is obviously a gamble. One unforeseen repair could be more than the car is worth. For a fixed period I would try to find a fixed cost solution. Have you tried social media (or the workplace itself) for a lift share? £700 plus fuel is quite a lot for 6 weeks so even a taxi deal booked for the 6 weeks might cost in?

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Mon 27 Apr 2015 16:02

Cheapest way to rent/lease a car for 6 weeks. - slkfanboy

There are rental companys that do longer search longer term car rentral. so it would be something like 300 per month. example carondemand.com

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Mon 27 Apr 2015 17:25

Cheapest way to rent/lease a car for 6 weeks. - johnnyrev

Thanks all. I am tempted to buy a banger- have just found a Daihatsu Sirion Auto, which my wife could drive on her auto licence, for a grand locally. Her insurance would be £600ish, but she's paying £50 a month for her rail fare.

I prefer this option to rent I or leasing, which although would offers reliable car, it's dead money. At least buying a banger would mean she had a car for a year until she is earning.

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Mon 27 Apr 2015 22:27

Cheapest way to rent/lease a car for 6 weeks. - Happy Blue!

Daihatsu Sirions are pretty much bombproof. My father has two - one in the UK that has been extremely well cared for over almost five years and less than 20,000 miles. The other, in Israel, is a similar age, but has over 65,000 miles and had been driven very hard before he bought it a few months ago. The driving quality of the two cars is so similar you would not believe it. Also very simple and inexpensive to maintain.

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Mon 27 Apr 2015 22:32

Cheapest way to rent/lease a car for 6 weeks. - Avant

I agree that 'bangernomics', although inevitably a gamble, could be your best best here, Johnnyrev. Nothing soldiers on quite like an old Toyota, and we can include the Sirion in that as it has a lot of Toyota parts (most of the mechanicals I believe, though if I'm wrong there I stand corrected).

I suspect that there will be some days when SWMBO decides that as you're only driving within the parish, she'll borrow the Yaris.....

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Fri 1 May 2015 18:17

Cheapest way to rent/lease a car for 6 weeks. - johnnyrev

Thanks everyone,

We were just beginning to look into buying a cheap car when my parents rang and out of the blue offered to pay for a rental car! Not sure if they were worried about us buying a banger or just feeling generous, but they have solved the problem. I hadn't even raised the topic with them because my brother is car-less at the moment, so our problem of needing a second car is piffling by comparison.

We've got a Corsa Auto, so my wife can use it, £560 for six weeks, seems reasonable. May take out some of the extra insurance that they offer to bring the excess down from £1000, but will study the small print and see what's what.

What this has got me thinking about is the huge choice of exciting cars for not much money. So when the PCP agreement ends on the Yaris next year, I am hugely tempted to buy something more interesting (Mercedes CLK, Alfa Spider, Honda S2000?) for a fraction of the cost of a new car and my wife can pay the final payment on the Yaris and happily run that for a couple of years. So expect another thread in 12 months or so!

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Fri 29 May 2015 18:27

Cheapest way to rent/lease a car for 6 weeks. - johnnyrev

Today was the day when we were due to collect our rental car from Budget, via rental cars.com. We had paid an extra £160 for insurance and all was well. However, the budget branch had no knowledge of our booking and after a lengthy phone call rental car.com couldn't find us a car!

A quick trip to Enterprise (who I have used before and were very good) was futile as they only rent for up to three weeks.

I have to confess then that this afternoon I have bought a Mercedes CLK 230 convertible. Please forgive me! It is £2500 with full history and 12 months MOT, 91,000 miles and 15 years old. A few stone chips and a bumper scuff, but looks good and goes well! And more fun than a Corsa rental! So my wife will now run the Yaris, and I have the Merc. I hope my parishioners don't think I have run off with the collection plate!

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Sat 30 May 2015 01:05

Cheapest way to rent/lease a car for 6 weeks. - Avant

How splendid, Johnnyrev - the parish will love it I'm sure, and can hardly complain given that it's 15 years old. Although if I were your organist - organists are usually cheerfully rude to vicars - I'd be calling you the German taxi driver.

Coincidentally, both the vicars that I work with here on the Dorset/Somerset border are of the Fix It Again Tomorrow persuasion.

For the good of the car's soul and yours, I suggest you take it for a 20-mile run at least once a week as the short journeys within a parish can take their toll.

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Sat 30 May 2015 14:58

Cheapest way to rent/lease a car for 6 weeks. - SteveLee

If you don't want to drive bangers. Pick a handful of cheap cars from somewhere trustworthy like Car Giant - stick them through the webuyanycar service (or something similar) and work out the difference picking the one with the smallest buy/sale gap. You may find you can drive a decent car for the period at a very reasonable cost.

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